


We meet again

by SugdenLovesDingle



Series: Robron Week 2020 [2]
Category: Emmerdale
Genre: Alternate Universe, Criminal Masterminds, M/M, mob boss Aaron
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-12
Updated: 2020-05-12
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:34:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24136678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SugdenLovesDingle/pseuds/SugdenLovesDingle
Summary: Robron week 2020Day 2: Criminal “I didn’t ask if it was legal, I asked if it could be done.”Mob boss Aaron tries to get info on the new guy in town.
Relationships: Aaron Dingle/Robert Sugden
Series: Robron Week 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1740202
Comments: 6
Kudos: 49





	We meet again

“I want you to find out everything you can about Robert Sugden.” Aaron dropped a note on the desk in front of Ryan, his new computer expert.

“Uhm… like what? Facebook page? LinkedIn?”

Aaron frowned.

“No. I can find that myself. I need intel on him. I need to know where he is, where he’s been, who he’s with, who’s in his inner circle, who is he talking to. Arrest record, criminal record. Track his phone, his computer, I want to know everything. Do you think you can do that?”

“Yeah… but I’m.. not sure… that’s entirely legal.”

Aaron rolled his eyes.

“I didn’t ask if it was legal, I asked if it could be done.” he pointed out. “And do I look like I care about legal? Jesus, Matty where did you find this guy?!”

“He’s a mate, boss. He’s the best at what he does, I swear.”

“So you keep saying.” Aaron muttered under his breath. “Just get it done and let me know what you find.” He settled on. “And make it worth the trouble of hiring you. Both of you.”

He turned around to leave but Ryan stopped him with just one question.

“Who is this guy anyway?”

Aaron closed his eyes and rubbed the ring finger on his left hand with his thumb.

“Nobody. Just get me the info.”

A few days later both Matty and Ryan walked into Aaron’s office.

“Boss, we have an update on Robert Sugden.” Matty told him.

“It looks like he’s recently been released and is now putting together a crew for a heist of some sorts.” Ryan said and put his laptop on Aaron’s desk, turning it to face him. “We managed to get a camera inside his building and catch part of a briefing.” He pressed play and Aaron watched Robert pace around a room, through a window at first and then from inside the room.

“You should know by now that I don’t play fair. Never have, probably never will.” Robert said on the video to an older man Aaron didn’t know. 

Just hearing Robert’s voice again and seeing him walk around sent shivers down his spine. He sounded confident and a little cocky, with that unique attitude that made him, him.

He hated himself for letting Robert affect him like that. Still.

“We think the man might be Frank Clayton, an associate he possibly met in prison. They served time in the same place at the same time.” Ryan’s voice snapped him back to reality.

Aaron nodded and resisted the urge to hit replay when the video ended.

“And we think this might be Priya Sharma.” Matty said excitedly, pointing at the back of a woman’s head in the background.

“Priya Sharma is in a French prison doing 12 years for fraud.” Aaron told them. “And what is with all these mights and maybes? I need facts. If I wanted guesses I wouldn’t have had to hire you two. And how did you get a camera in there anyway? Robert wouldn’t let some random guy into his office without thoroughly checking him out.”

Matty smiled.

“We paid a food delivery guy to go in and pretend to have an order for him.”

Aaron sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. There is no way Robert hadn’t seen right through that.

“Did anyone see you?”

“Absolutely not.” Matty insisted. “We were careful.”

“I’m sure you were. Go talk to Cain and set up some surveillance around the city. I need you two to lay low for a while.”

“Wait, there is more.” Ryan said, picking up his laptop from Aaron’s desk and opening a file. “Robert Jacob Sugden, born April 22 1986, in Emmerdale, Yorkshire. In and out of juvie and prison ever since he was 15. Most recent arrest six years ago for GBH with intent and a handful or fraud charges.”

“This is nothing new. One google search tells me the same thing.” Aaron commented. “Tell me something I don’t know.”

“He wears a wedding ring but we can’t find any record of a wife, other than Chrissie White… but they divorced in 2015.”

Aaron nodded and thought about the piece of metal on a chain around his neck, hidden under his shirt.

“He’s been linked to various women, including Rebecca White, but there is no record of anything.”

“But we’ll keep looking. We got the girls to keep an eye on his office in town and people keeping their eyes open around the city. We’ll find his wife if she’s out there.”

“Right. Ok. That’ll do for now. I’ll let you know if I need anything else.” Aaron said, dismissing them. “Close the door on your way out.” He sat back in his chair and waited for them to leave before tugging the silver chain out from under his clothes. He turned the ring over between his fingers and tried to ignore the pang of hurt and sadness.

“Oi! Where do you think you’re going?!” Aaron heard Cain yell outside his office. “If you take one more step, I won’t hesitate to put a bullet in you.”

That was Aaron’s cue to see what was happening. The last thing they needed was someone calling the police because Cain got a little too trigger happy. Again.

“Nobody is putting a bullet in anyone, what’s going on?” Aaron asked as he rushed out of his office.

“We have an intruder.” Cain announced, gun cocked and pointed at said intruder.

Aaron’s gaze followed the gun’s trajectory and he only just managed to suppress a gasp when he saw who it was pointed at.

“Hello Aaron.” Robert said sweetly “It’s been a while.”

“Could say that.” Aaron replied, trying to keep his voice steady.

“Your guys aren’t subtle. Have you lost your touch picking out a crew?”

"What makes you think this isn’t exactly what I wanted?”

“If you wanted to talk to me, all you had to do was ask. I am still your husband after all.” Robert said with a smile.

Aaron sighed and squeezed his eyes shut. Behind him someone gasped.

“Are you, Robert?” Aaron demanded, walking into the office, gesturing for Robert to follow him. “Because I remember promising you forever and then you turning yourself in barely a year later.”

“I had to. Or they would’ve grabbed you too. And the business. And Seb would’ve gone into care.”

“You could’ve talked to me first! I didn’t even know they were that close!”

“I was protecting you.”

“I still did six weeks. Got 2 years in total.”

“I know. I pulled some strings to get you out. For the boy.” Robert looked around. “Where is he?”

“Not here. Do you think I’d take him with me to do business?”

“Is that what this is? Business?”

“You’re in my office, in my city. That makes it business.” Aaron told him.

“Fair enough.” Robert put his hands in his pockets. “Let’s talk business then. I want back in. I have a crew. I’m planning something big. We work together and the city is ours.”

“It’s already mine. I don’t need your help.”

“Clearly you do if your boys lead me straight to you.”

“Again with the assuming this isn’t exactly what I wanted.”

“I know you better than that.”

“Do you?”

“I do. And I also know you need a better crew. I have Priya Sharma and a bent cop who thinks he owns me.”

“Bullshit. I heard Priya got nicked in Paris last year.”

“She did. But I have my contacts and now she’s free and working for me.” Robert told him, a smug smile on his face.

“Good for you. But I don’t need your help. I’m doing fine without you. I have the Barton boys and Billy Fletcher.”

“Really?” Robert asked “You hate Billy Fletcher.”

“He’s useful. And you know what they say, keep you friends close, keep your enemies closer.”

Robert smiled.

“And where do I fit on that scale?”

“I haven’t decided yet.” Aaron told him. “But like I said, I don’t need your help. I’ve got my crew and they’re doing fine.”

“Fine? Since when do you settle for fine?”

“I don’t settle for anything. I know my crew, I know I can trust them. They’re loyal to me and only me.”

“Really? Because the last I heard was that Ross Barton was playing happy families with the lesser White sister.”

Aaron shrugged.

“I don’t need him when I’ve got the others. And Cain.”

“Ah so you got to take over the family business from uncle Cain? I always thought your ambitions went further than that.”

“I had to start somewhere after you gave up everything we’d worked for!” Aaron snapped.

“I had to! For us! For our family! For the business! I got them off your back so Seb would at least grow up with one parent. Deep down I wanted you to get out of the business…”

“Really? First you want to work with me and then you say you want me to get out.” Aaron groaned in frustration. “Make up your mind, Robert.”

Robert smiled and stepped closer to Aaron.

“I have. A long time ago.”

“Oh no. We are not going there again.” Aaron took a step back. “This is strictly business.”

“Oh so we’re doing business now?”

“Well… it would be a shame not to pool our resources together… What are your plans?”

They sat down in the comfy chairs in Aaron’s office and talked business for a while. Robert revealed he did in fact meet Frank in prison and he was focusing on art forgery and money creativity as he called it.

“Frank can talk himself out of almost anything. He’s a proper old school con man. He’s definitely useful.”

“I bet. But I don’t know him so I don’t trust him. Especially not if we’re talking about taking on the Tates and the Whites.”

“You know and trust me. I’ll vouch for him.”

“I haven’t seen you in six years, Robert, I don’t know if I still know or trust you.”

“Ouch.”

Aaron shrugged.

“Drink?”

He busied himself pouring them both a drink and sat down again. It wasn’t long before both of their minds started to wander and they ended up reminiscing about the good times of their relationship, before it had all taken a turn for the worst.

“I can’t believe you’re still in this building.” Robert said, looking around the office. “We’ve had some fun here over the years.”

“Yeah.” Aaron agreed, remembering the stolen kisses and quickies in dark corners from the early days of their relationship, to long lunches spent in their own office with the blinds drawn later on.

Robert grinned and leaned forward, reaching out to touch Aaron’s knee.

“Remember that time after you had a fight with Cain about us running to France together, and you shoved me in here and had me over that desk without saying a word?” Robert’s hand moved further up Aaron’s leg. “That was… so hot. That kept me going while I was inside.”

Aaron shot up from his chair and started pacing. Anything to get away from those hands before he did something he shouldn’t. Something like throwing all caution to the wind and letting himself fall for Robert again, getting lost in him again.

He cleared his throat.

“We’re uhm.. hiding in plain sight here. On paper this is a cleaning company, financial advice business, and a day-care next door. Nobody suspects a thing with the kids around.”

Robert nodded and slowly sat back in his chair.

“Smart. You were always the smart one in this marriage.”

Aaron gave him a quick nervous smile.

“So uh… the Whites, how do we get rid of them?” he asked, trying to change the subject.

“They’ll deal with themselves eventually. Little Lucky is a ticking time bomb. He took one of my runners while I was inside. A kid named Gerry.”

“Why?”

“Because he worked for me? I don’t know. Lachlan has more issues than either of us can imagine and Chrissie is too blind to see them.”

“Well let’s take him then.” Aaron suggested. “We’ll take him and deal with the rest of them in one go.”

“I really don’t care about them. I didn’t come here to talk about them.” Robert got up and crossed the room to stand in front of Aaron. “I came here to see my husband.”

Aaron swallowed thickly.

“It was never legal.” He said, thinking back to their afternoon up on the roof all those years ago.

“We couldn’t back then… but there’s nothing stopping us now.”

“I can’t, Robert. I just can’t… I have too much to do trying to keep everything going with the Whites on one side and Kim Tate breathing down my neck on the other… I just can’t.”

“Not now or not ever?”

“I don’t know… I… I need time.”

Robert leaned in and softly kissed Aaron’s cheek.

“That’s ok. I’ll wait. I’ve waited before, haven’t I?” he smiled and turned around to leave, stopping by the door. “If you change your mind, on the business or our marriage, you know where to find me.”


End file.
